USS Rhianna
by USS Rhianna
Summary: The story of the Role Play "U.S.S. Rhianna." Set in 2370, the U.S.S. Rhianna is sent on a shakedown cruise. In typical Star Trek fashion, nothing goes right . . .


U.S.S. Rhianna (title pending) 

Chapter One: Romulans 

Disclaimer: We don't own Star Trek. That's Paramounts. We don't own any of these characters. We're making no money. Don't sue us. 

A/N: If you like what you read here, PLEASE join us at . I mean, we're down to the point of desperation that we've put our non-existant crewmembers in Romulan hands as hostages. So yeah. 

Credits: Everyone at the _U.S.S. Rhianna_ RPG: Joeee, WereWolf, Tommy, and Wedge. 

* 

Captain Jaeih Bolam, a Betazoid, was checking the final prepartions for departure. Her ship, the _U.S.S. Rhianna_, was awaiting most of her senior crew, and they could leave. Bolam looked up and saw a male human standing outside of the turbolift. 

"Ensign Tomas Lopez reporting for duty, sir," he said. 

"Your station?" 

"Operations, sir." 

She nodded. "Welcome aboard, Ensign. If you would take your station-" 

"Captain," her human first officer Wedge Jahoam said, "we have a transmission from Starfleet Command." 

"Onscreen." 

"No, Captain," he said, "It's for you and I." 

"I see. My ready room, number one." Behind her, she could sense those on the bridge tense slightly, but nevertheless there was excitement. _All the better_ she thought. 

The captain walked into her ready room and looked to her first officer. 

"Did they say why only we could hear this one?" she asked. 

"No," her first officer replied. 

Bolam sighed. "Figures. Command can never do things the easy way." 

"Naturally." 

She turned to the screen. "Greetings, Admiral Nataya." 

The smiling face that she remembered from her Academy days greeted her in return. 

Wedge Jahoam nodded to the admiral. "Ello." 

She glared at him slightly. Her first officer was somewhat of a rogue, that was for sure. "What can I do for you, Nataya?" 

"I have some orders for you, Captain," she said. "And I'm also here to answer . . . questions." 

The screen alerted them that Nataya had sent a file. Bolam opened it and looked them over. _Fascinating_. . . She looked to her first officer, who merely lifted his eyebrow in a questioning manner. 

"Admiral, this is . . . extreme," she said. "Why are we going there?" 

Nataya raised her eyebrow. "I thought that was clear in the orders?" 

Jahoam was quite confused. "May I kindly intrude and ask where we're going that appears so controversial with the good captain here?" 

Bolam glared at him again. "Khitomer. It's not far from the _Romulan_ border, if you didn't already know. We're picking up _Romulan_ ambassadors. 

Her first officer spared a glance at Nataya, and his eyebrows were as high as they could go. 

"If you mean why you are picking up the Ambassadors...?" Nataya asked. 

"Well," Jahoam said, "Why us? Isn't this slightly extreme for a shakedown?" 

Nataya offered a small shrug. "You are the only available ship that isn't on a mission vital to the security and well being of the Federation." 

"Admiral, this is a mistake," Bolam said. "We don't even have all our key crew!" 

"What's tying up our resources?" Jahoam asked. 

"The Borg, mostly," Nataya answered. "And the Romulans themselves. We've contacted a few members of their underground." 

Jahoam sighed. "The Borg . . . I hope we don't have to face them." 

Bolam offered another glare to her first officer, and sensed his apprehension, and felt it herself, as well. She tried to get any feeling out of Nataya, but she couldn't. "You're going to jinx us," she fiercely whispered to her first officer. To Nataya she said, "Is that all, Admiral? I do not wish to occupy your time." 

Nataya nodded. "If that's all the questions you have." 

"Yes. I have the mission details here, they are sufficient." 

Nataya nodded again. "All right, then. Good luck." 

Her first officer sighed as the transmission ended. "I have a bad feeling about this." 

She raised her eyebrow and also sighed. "Tell me about it. I wish I could pick up on her feelings. I really don't want to get that close to the Neutral Zone. What also puzzles me is that we're picking up the rest of our crew there." 

"That's odd," Jahoam said. 

"I know. Shall we go tell the bridge?" 

He nodded. "Let's." 

They walked out of the ready room and took their seats. 

"Ensign Lopez, lay in a course for Khitomer, warp factor five." 

"Aye, sir. Course laid in, warp factor five," Lopez said. 

"Engage." 

The _Rhianna_ hardly even shuddered as the warp drive worked them to their destination, and Bolam raised her eyebrow as she looked at the bridge. No navigation, no science, no engineering below, no chief medical officer . . . sending them on a mission like this was insane. 

After about an hour, chaos descended upon the ship as the seat that normally would have seated their navigation officer exploded. The silent ship also awoke and rumbled at her crew. 

Bolam stood up as they dropped out of warp. "What the hell was that?" 

"Apparently," Lopez said, "There is a malfunction in the warp drive." 

Jahoam mumbled, "I don't think I want a report." 

"Report," she ordered. 

"Minor damage to the warp engines, minor injuries, no hull damage present, and deflectors held," replied Lopez. 

"How long before the warp engines are operational?" Bolam inquired. 

"One hour," Lopez said. 

"All right. You have one hour, then take us back to our heading at warp factor eight," she ordered. 

Lopez nodded and began to issue repair orders. 

An hour later, as Lopez had estimated, they were headed back to Khitomer at warp eight. Before she knew it, they had arrived. 

"Captain, now approaching Khitomer," Lopez reported. 

She stood up. "Take us out of warp, Ensign," she paused, thinking. "Yellow alert." 

Lopez nodded. 

"We're on yellow alert," Wedge Jahoam announced. "We're prepared for anything coming our way." 

"Don't be too sure about that," Bolam told him. 

Jahoam simply nodded as they came out of warp speed. 

"Captain, we have two Romulan Warbirds in orbit around Khitomer!" Ensign Joseph Munrow said. 

"Relax. We were meant to expect Romulan's here," he soothed. 

The tactical officer spoke again. "We're being hailed." 

"Onscreen," Bolam said. 

_Oh joy, Romulan warbirds,_ she thought with false excitement. 

"Starfleet vessel," the image of a Romulan commander spoke from the screen, "This is the Romulan Warbird--" static. Wasn't that helpful. "We have your pitiful ambassadors that were playing traitor to the Praetor." 

"She rhymes," her first officer said next to her. Not for the first time, she wanted to strangle him. She settled for a glare and tried to focus on the Romulan speaking. Her intentions were obvious, she did not need to use her telepathic powers to sense them. 

"We also have the rest of your crew that was to join you. If you meet our demands, you may be spared, along with your crew. If you do not..." 

"Sir," her tactical officer said from behind her. "I have multiple energy readings...at least ten more warbirds are decloaking!" 

"Damn," she cursed. To her bridge she said, "Attempt to alert Starfleet of our situation. Red alert, shields up, power up phasers but don't fire." 

"That was a neat trick by the Romulans," Jahoam mumbled. 

"Indeed it was, Number One," Bolam said. "Indeed it was." She could still sense the apprehension in her crew, espically on the bridge. 

"Confirmed captain Ten Romulan warbirds decloaked. That brings the total to tweleve," Lopez reluctantly informed her. 

Their tactical officer hailed the Romulans. 

"Romulan Commander, all we want is our crew and the ambassadors," Bolam said. 

"And all _I_ want are the traitors and you dead!" the Romulan commander yelled and closed the channel. 

Nope, no need to use telepathy _there_. 

"They are charging weapons," said the tactical officer 

"Maximum shields!" she exclaimed. 

Before the Romulans could open fire, the battle was interrupted on the _Rhianna_ by a beeping panel. 

"Son of a bitch!" Lopez seemed to say to himself 

"Ensign?" she said with a curious tone 

"Sir," Lopez rotated his seat to face Bolam, "Eleven Klingon birds of prey; one _Vor'cha_-class ship; and one _Galaxy_-class starship decloaking," Lopez replied enthusiastically. 

She smiled and looked at the view screen. The _Enterprise_ had arrived in the nick of time with a Klingon fleet. The Klingon fleet surrounded the warbirds and the _Vor'cha_-class and the _Enterprise_ each pulled up on the side of the _Rhianna_. 

"We are being hailed" Lopez informed the captain. 

"On screen" the captain replied with a sign relief. 

Jean-Luc Picard's face appeared on the screen. "Captain Bolam. You appear to have gotten yourself into a bit of a situation." 

Not within range of the viewscreen, Jahoam's face turned slightly sour. _Always trust the French to understate something_, Bolam sensed his thought. 

She smiled at Picard. "Well, Captain, we had logged our complaints with the Admiral about this mission." 

"So I heard." Picard said. She saw Jahoam's expression turned even sourer, because obviously this impressive fleet had been ready to pop up as soon as something bad happened. 

She noticed Wedge's expressions, and increased the range to include him. 

He looked flustered for a moment, and a brief one it was. 

Bolam looked smug. "Captain, this is my First Officer, Wedge Jahoam." 

"Ahm, hello, Captain." 

Picard merely smiled. 

"There is obviously much more than what meets the eye to this mission, Captain," Bolam said. 

"Indeed, there is." 

"Would you mind telling me what it is, then? I follow my orders, and the people I am supposed to escort are suddenly hostages, as is with a good portion of my senior staff, and other crewmembers." 

"We were worried something might happen," she heard Picard mumble. "How did you--" Picard stopped, obviously listening to one of his crew. "Ah. You are a Betazed." 

Bolam _had_ to grin at that. There was no hiding anything from him. "I am also a Starfleet captain, Picard. I know when things are being hidden from me. I knew it back when I got these orders." 

"Captain, look out!" Wedge shouted, pushed her to where they were nearly at her ready room as a tile from the wall crashed down. 

"Did I mention my ship is falling apart?" she mumbled. "I need my engineer. Desperately." 

"He is on the Romulan-" Lopez started to say. 

"I know, Ensign," she said. 

"Captain...?" Picard said. In between being pushed and complaining, she had totally forgot about Picard. 

She shook her head to clear it and stood up. "I apologize, Captain. Where were we? Oh, yes, I remember. Well, would you care explaining to me why everyone I came to get is taken hostage, what you are doing with a Klingon fleet, and how you knew we'd run into trouble?" 

Picard looked wary, and when Bolam tried to see what he was worried about, she found out. 

"Don't worry," she said, "Everyone on here is senior crew." 

"Ah," he said. "In that case. The admiral was worried that you might run into trouble. As it turns out, she was right." 

Bolam looked skeptical, but accepted this. She was about to say someting, but was interrupted by a report. 

"Captains," Munrow said, "the Romulans are firing!" 

Bolam felt Jahoam wishing to say that that was an unneccessary announcement, as they felt the _Rhianna_ shaking rather violently from a multitude of disruptor strikes. 

Instead, he said, "They have to be insane! They're hopelessly outnumbered!" 

Bolam gave her first officer a look, then looked back at the viewscreen and saw Picard's screen shaking extremely violently. Apparently, the Romulan's were concentrating their fire on the _Enterprise_. 

"Well, Captain, we should continue this later," Bolam said. 

"Indeed we shall." Picard said. "In my ready room, two standard hours after this is all finished." The image of Picard winked out, to be replaced by the images of battling Klingons and Romulans, with the Enterprise flitting about madly. 

"Captain, our orders?" Wedge said, taking a seat at the helm. 

"Full speed ahead, Number One. Let's teach the Romulans why it's a bad idea to ambush the _Rhianna_." 


End file.
